THE JURY Comes to Life in Rehearsals
by Anna Fay William, composer/lyricist
In our rehearsals we were able to see how the characters in The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com) came to life. We saw how our director John Garrett brought out the emotional responses and characterizations from the actors throughout the rehearsals.
The Jury is an ensemble piece with six jurors and a bailiff in singing roles and two officers of the court in non-singing roles. Every role is critical to the development of the story. Everyone makes a strong contribution to the decision that is finally made by the jury—just as with a real jury. The show is a process in which minds and personalities are changed and we hope in an entertaining fashion.
Each character is very different and also represents a different cultural background. While such individualism is obvious in the opening, each character grows in his/her ability to act with one another. The first act focuses on the jurors who don’t want to spend much time serving on a jury. An aggressive female stockbroker Alexandra prods them on. In the second act, several jurors feel they are being kept unjustly by another juror Della who is headstrong about wading through all the steps of the deliberation process in this murder case. The tension rises throughout the musical as the two women go head-to-head. The other jurors find their alliances shifting, and their own opinions emerging by the second act with an unexpected conclusion.
At the first rehearsal, director Garrett told the actors that their acting direction would come from how they felt about their characters. His role, he said was to enable them to perform because they were all very talented. To get a reading on how they felt about their characters, he asked them to bring in some descriptions of their characters and why they acted as they did in the play. Very early on, his blocking began to shape the movements of the actors and their positions on the stage. Blocking is just one way in which movement adds to the emotional content and the opposing forces on stage. Throughout the rehearsals the director called upon the actors repeatedly for their understanding of what was happening on stage..
Subtle movements and facial expressions emphasize the dramatic content and humor in any show. We’ve all seen how audiences go off into peels of laughter with an actor’s slightest shrug of the shoulder. These are the actions that aren’t usually stated in a script but which seem to come naturally to good actors and directors. In this show, small actions showed how the jurors became involved with one another. As strangers, they are trying to find the some way to get their own voices heard--often in comic moments throughout the play.
Timing is everything in a performance. That is why actors want to make sure everything in the script and music is pinned down quite quickly and, hopefully, never changed. Once they commit their lines to memory their reflexes are built on what they’ve learned for both the lines and blocking. They need a stable framework to work out their emotional changes. But with a new work and a new cast changes happen—and as they do we as authors gain some experience in understanding what is and isn't working in the show. So with changes we expected some upset and grumbling from the actors but we were very fortunate. Our actors held their tongues and their tempers and the rehearsals went quite smoothly.
Scenes were done repeatedly in the rehearsals. Voices were raised and emotions expressed. “God, you’re difficult,” Della shouts at Alexandra. In one evening they went through this scene three times. The actors wanted to run scenes over and over. It is also often customary to do speed-reading without worrying about the blocking. The lines are delivered in a rapid-fire manner. It’s a memory check. For this kind of rehearsal, almost everyone is off book—meaning no notes, not even on their palms.
The actors began to interpret the subtext of the play as they created their roles in the rehearsals. Even though they might have trouble with their lines in the beginning, their variations on the lines were usually very close to the script. Not always exact, but the thoughts were very much the same. And their variations might even be adopted.
Anyone who thinks that acting is an easy job should go through a production one time. It takes patience, an ability to find form in movement, an ability to capture the emotions of an individual and importantly, an ability to memorize a script in a short period of time.It is incredible that actors will dedicate so many hours of their life to so few performances. As writers we appreciate their dedication.
Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, February 20, 2006.
by Anna Fay William, composer/lyricist
In our rehearsals we were able to see how the characters in The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com) came to life. We saw how our director John Garrett brought out the emotional responses and characterizations from the actors throughout the rehearsals.
The Jury is an ensemble piece with six jurors and a bailiff in singing roles and two officers of the court in non-singing roles. Every role is critical to the development of the story. Everyone makes a strong contribution to the decision that is finally made by the jury—just as with a real jury. The show is a process in which minds and personalities are changed and we hope in an entertaining fashion.
Each character is very different and also represents a different cultural background. While such individualism is obvious in the opening, each character grows in his/her ability to act with one another. The first act focuses on the jurors who don’t want to spend much time serving on a jury. An aggressive female stockbroker Alexandra prods them on. In the second act, several jurors feel they are being kept unjustly by another juror Della who is headstrong about wading through all the steps of the deliberation process in this murder case. The tension rises throughout the musical as the two women go head-to-head. The other jurors find their alliances shifting, and their own opinions emerging by the second act with an unexpected conclusion.
At the first rehearsal, director Garrett told the actors that their acting direction would come from how they felt about their characters. His role, he said was to enable them to perform because they were all very talented. To get a reading on how they felt about their characters, he asked them to bring in some descriptions of their characters and why they acted as they did in the play. Very early on, his blocking began to shape the movements of the actors and their positions on the stage. Blocking is just one way in which movement adds to the emotional content and the opposing forces on stage. Throughout the rehearsals the director called upon the actors repeatedly for their understanding of what was happening on stage..
Subtle movements and facial expressions emphasize the dramatic content and humor in any show. We’ve all seen how audiences go off into peels of laughter with an actor’s slightest shrug of the shoulder. These are the actions that aren’t usually stated in a script but which seem to come naturally to good actors and directors. In this show, small actions showed how the jurors became involved with one another. As strangers, they are trying to find the some way to get their own voices heard--often in comic moments throughout the play.
Timing is everything in a performance. That is why actors want to make sure everything in the script and music is pinned down quite quickly and, hopefully, never changed. Once they commit their lines to memory their reflexes are built on what they’ve learned for both the lines and blocking. They need a stable framework to work out their emotional changes. But with a new work and a new cast changes happen—and as they do we as authors gain some experience in understanding what is and isn't working in the show. So with changes we expected some upset and grumbling from the actors but we were very fortunate. Our actors held their tongues and their tempers and the rehearsals went quite smoothly.
Scenes were done repeatedly in the rehearsals. Voices were raised and emotions expressed. “God, you’re difficult,” Della shouts at Alexandra. In one evening they went through this scene three times. The actors wanted to run scenes over and over. It is also often customary to do speed-reading without worrying about the blocking. The lines are delivered in a rapid-fire manner. It’s a memory check. For this kind of rehearsal, almost everyone is off book—meaning no notes, not even on their palms.
The actors began to interpret the subtext of the play as they created their roles in the rehearsals. Even though they might have trouble with their lines in the beginning, their variations on the lines were usually very close to the script. Not always exact, but the thoughts were very much the same. And their variations might even be adopted.
Anyone who thinks that acting is an easy job should go through a production one time. It takes patience, an ability to find form in movement, an ability to capture the emotions of an individual and importantly, an ability to memorize a script in a short period of time.It is incredible that actors will dedicate so many hours of their life to so few performances. As writers we appreciate their dedication.
Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, February 20, 2006.
posted by Anna Williams at 5:20 AM
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